Local & Regional

5:12 pm

Mon December 16, 2013

Life Without Parole for Good Friday Shooters

Alvin Watts (left) and Jake England changed their not guilty pleas Monday to guilty and were sentenced to life without parole. Prosecutors offered to drop the possibility of pursuing the death penalty in exchange for the men's guilty pleas.

Credit Tulsa County Jail Booking photo

Two men charged with hate crimes in the shooting deaths of three people in Tulsa last year have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Alvin Watts and Jake England changed their previous not guilty pleas on Monday in Tulsa County District Court as part of a plea deal in which prosecutors dropped the death penalty against them.

Watts and England were charged with first-degree murder in the Easter weekend 2012 shootings of William Allen, Bobby Clark and Dannaer Fields who were killed as they walked near their homes. Two others were shot and wounded.

All five victims are black. Watts is white and England has said he's Cherokee Indian.

Both men also pleaded guilty to shooting with intent to kill and to hate crime charges.